May 29, 2013
Joshua Buck
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
jbuck@nasa.gov
RELEASE: 13-159
NASA SELECTS 31 SPACE BIOLOGY RESEARCH PROPOSALS
WASHINGTON -- NASA's Space Biology Program will fund 31 proposals to
help investigate how cells, plants and animals respond to changes in
gravity.
These studies will result in new basic knowledge that provides a
foundation on which other NASA researchers and engineers can build
approaches and countermeasures to problems confronting human
exploration of space, or that translate into new biological tools or
applications on Earth. The proposals were in response to the research
announcement "Research Opportunities in Space Biology."
The selected proposals are from 21 institutions in 13 states and will
receive a total of about $14.9 million during a one- to four-year
period.
Space biologists examine and discover underlying mechanisms of
adaptation to changes resulting from the spaceflight environment,
such as altered gravity, stress, and radiation, and attempt to
determine genetic, cellular and organismal mechanisms that regulate
and sustain growth, metabolism, reproduction and development during
that adaptation.
Selected experiments will begin immediately. Nine will be conducted
aboard the International Space Station. Fourteen ground-based studies
will develop hypotheses to test aboard the orbiting laboratory.
Investigators new to space biology will collect preliminary data in
eight proposals.
The Space Biology Program is managed by the Space Life and Physical
Sciences Division in NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission
Directorate at the agency's headquarters in Washington.
For a complete list of the selected proposals, principal
investigators, and organizations, visit:
http://go.nasa.gov/ZegAwy
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